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(In) What Remains of Edith Finch Worlds at our fingertips. Reading (in) What Remains of Edith Finch Mona Bozdog Dayna Galloway This is the author's version of an article accepted for publication in Games and Culture. The published version will be available from: https://journals.sagepub.com The article is protected by copyright. Users may download and save a local copy of an article accessed in an institutional repository for the user's personal reference. For permission to reuse an article, please follow the publisher's Process for Requesting Permission available from: https://uk.sagepub.com/en- gb/eur/process-for-requesting-permission Title Worlds at our fingertips. Reading (in) What Remains of Edith Finch Abstract Video games are works of written code which portray worlds and characters in action and facilitate an aesthetic and interpretive experience. Beyond this similarity to literary works, some video games deploy various design strategies which blend gameplay and literary elements to explicitly foreground a hybrid literary/ludic experience. We identify three such strategies: engaging with literary structures, forms and techniques; deploying text in an aesthetic rather than a functional way; and intertextuality. This paper aims to analyse how these design strategies are deployed in What Remains of Edith Finch (Giant Sparrow, 2017) to support a hybrid readerly/playerly experience. We argue that this type of design is particularly suited for walking simulators because they support interpretive play (Upton, 2015) through slowness, ambiguity (Muscat et al., 2016; Pinchbeck 2012), narrative and aesthetic aspirations (Carbo-Mascarell, 2016). Understanding walking sims as literary games (Ensslin, 2014) can shift the emphasis from their lack of ‘traditional’ gameplay complexity and focus instead on the opportunities that they afford for hybrid storytelling and for weaving literature and gameplay in innovative and playful ways. Keywords Walking simulators, narrative games, literary gaming, art games, reading games, What Remains of Edith Finch Introduction Even before the age of digital gaming, games and play permeated the literary field. For example, in 1976 Robert Detweiler identified three types of literary phenomena where (analogue) game elements impact and shape post-1965 American fiction. The first refers to a “playful or whimsical” (Detweiler, 1976, p. 48) style of writing, what might be called game- like literature. These are forms “based on exuberance and exaggeration” which seem “spontaneous and casually composed” and are usually humorous but do not “portray a particular game, or play a game with the reader” (ibid.). The second category consists of works of fiction which embed games within the work as “the foundation of plot, characterization, or imagery” (ibid.). And, finally, he identifies fiction which takes the form of a game “in which or through which the author plays a game with the reader, either by presenting the story in some cryptic form as a puzzle to be solved or as an inside joke […] or a revision of an older narrative” (idem, p. 48-49). If Detweiler focuses on manifestations of games within literary works, we take a complementary approach and consider how elements of (print) literature can become manifest in video games. We understand literature as “written artistic works” (literature, n.d.). The overlaps are visible in video games which adopt a literary genre (mainly crime, fantasy, science-fiction, horror), video game adaptations of literary works (The Witcher, CD Projekt, 2007; Agatha Christie the ABC Murders, Artefact Studios, 2016; Game of Thrones, Telltale Games, 2014), video games inspired by literary works (BioShock, 2K Games, 2007; S.T.A.L.K.E.R., GSC Game World, 2007; Far Cry 2, Ubisoft Montreal, 2008), video games in which books have a central function (Myst, Cyan, 1993; Sherlock Holmes, Crimes and Punishments, Frogwares, 2014), in which the characters are writers (Alan Wake, Remedy Entertainment, 2010; Gone Home, Fullbright, 2013) or video games in which reading or writing become a game mechanic/ in-game action (Device 6, Simogo, 2013; Stride and Prejudice, No Crusts Interactive, 2013; Elegy for a Dead World, Dejobaan Games, 2014). In turn, the written text appears in different forms: the written lines of code which underpin video games, the use of characters in ASCII games to create characters and environments, lines of dialogue in speech boxes, words in menus, flavour text describing in-game objects and events, collectables and artefacts like scrolls, letters, pages of books, or text which is embedded in the environment to convey additional information about the world (posters, graffiti, comics, newspapers, documents etc). What Remains of Edith Finch (Giant Sparrow, 2017 from here onwards WRoEF) is a video game which uniquely blends different literary elements, an aesthetic use of text and intertextuality with gameplay. In this paper we will offer a close reading of the game emphasising the interplay between its literary and ludic elements. A close reading can expose hidden layers of meaning within the game (Tosca, 2002; Consalvo and Dutton, 2006; Bizzocchi and Tanenbaum, 2011; Fernández-Vara, 2014) and in the present paper it allows us to focus on the literary elements present in the game and to emphasise their mutually beneficial relationship to gameplay. We propose that a literary dimension is manifest in the game’s theme and influences, its adaptation of literary genres, forms and techniques, its overall structure as well as in its aesthetic use of written text and metaphoric use of textual artefacts (books, diaries, comic books, letters). We argue that the game belongs to the genre of literary games in which “language is foregrounded as verbal art rather than used as a purely functional tool” (Ensslin, 2014, p. 141) thus affording two types of aesthetic experiences: ludic and literary, the former emphasising gameplay, the latter the story and the literary devices deployed in its telling. This type of engagement has been identified by Astrid Ensslin as literary gaming, “a specific form of digital gameplay that happens when we interact with digital artefacts that combine so-called ludic (from Latin ludus: game or play) and literary (from Latin littera: alphabetic letter, or plural litterae: piece of writing) elements” (Ensslin, 2014, p.1). Literary games invite players to deploy different sets of skills as they simultaneously engage in playing and reading the game. We start by arguing that walking sims can be understood as literary games and then we analyse WRoEF to illustrate how the ludic and literary elements play out in its design. We conclude by expressing our hope that more games will explore the playerly/readerly hybridity motivated by the game’s innovative design as well as its popular and critical success. Walking simulators and literary gaming During the past decade developers have been pushing at the boundaries of the video game form, redefining and expanding their scope and their player communities. Their potential for creating aesthetic, narrative, emotional and critical engagement have been widely studied (Sharp, 2015; Upton, 2015; Isbister, 2016; Ryan, 2006; Ryan, 2015 (2001); Flanagan, 2009; Flanagan and Nissenbaum, 2014; Anthropy, 2012; Shaw, 2015 to name but a few). The Chinese Room, Tale of Tales, Fullbright, thatgamecompany, Giant Sparrow, Campo Santo are the flag bearers of a new wave of video game developers who explore the medium’s potential for artistic expression, critique and social change. One of the most important genres which resulted from their combined efforts is the walking simulator. Walking simulators (or walking sims) are a subgenre of first-person, exploration video games. Although there have been some precursors to walking sims (most notable example is Myst, Cyan, 1993), the first walking sim is considered to be Dear Esther (The Chinese Room, 2012). Dear Esther started life as a creative response to Half-Life 2 (Valve Corporation, 2004), a mod1 in the Source Engine (Valve Corporation, 2004), but also as an AHRC (Arts and Humanities Research Council) funded, development-led research project at the University of Portsmouth. According to the Valve Developer page, the stated purpose of the project was to create “experimental game mods […] something radically different from normal: an interactive story that dispensed with traditional gameplay and focused instead on an open-ended, semi-random narrative.”2 (n.a., n.d.). Dear Esther was the result of Dan Pinchbeck’s experimentation with the first-person genre (FPS) attempting to investigate what happens when all gameplay is stripped out of a FPS, leaving only the environment, atmosphere and story (Pinchbeck, 2012). Since the launch of Dear Esther multiple titles have emerged that adopt and reclaim the term ‘walking simulator’ which was coined in derision of their perceived lack of ‘traditional’ gameplay by a frustrated player community. This frustration was directed towards the alternative style of gameplay: no traditional objectives, challenges or rewards, few interaction schemes and in-game actions. In walking simulators, the player mostly walks through the gameworld, interacting with its objects and environments. Because the main in-game action is walking (with the occasional opening of doors and drawers, switching lights on and off, or focusing attention on objects of interest for example by zooming in) they are accessible to a diverse player community regardless of their previous gaming knowledge. Additionally, this limited ‘palette’
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